OK, I'll bite...although a Google of "What is a podcast?" would have probably been faster.

Podcasts are typically an MP3 recording of a radio show or weblog version of a radio show. 1src can have a podcast made by a volunteer or you can have a podcast of Bill O'Rielly that you have to pay $3.99 per month to access. They range from totally professional to the total garage hack in quality.

They can be downloaded all at once for storage, archive or listening at a later time, or you can stream them. If you stream them, they are streaming audio, just like any other streaming audio.

Pocket Tunes Deluxe, can play them either stored or live streamed.

You download them from where you want to get them from. Typically you would download them from the website that puts them out, for instance if you want Bill O'Rielly's go to his websitehttp://www.billoreilly.com/

The thing that makes it a 'podcast' is the fact that once you subscribe, you don't have to do anything but connect up your MP3 player. Program, such as iPodder Lemon (and now iTunes 4.9) periodiacally scan the subscriptions for new episodes, download them, and then put them on your player for you.

Personally, I like the combination of Pocket Tunes, Card Export, and MyPodder (http://www.mypodder.org) to do all of this on my Treo.

Please excuse my ignorance. I listen to several free pod-casts. I am able to listen to a couple of them using drpodder. I have read some people use double twist but I can not find that app anywhere. On a majority of the broadcast, there is only a icon for ITunes free pod-cast to get the show. Is there a work around to be able to get those shows. I have tried putting in the URL but most of the time it will not recognize it. I want everyone of the forum to know that I am so grateful for all your input on these forums. They are very educational and for the people that are working diligently on the apps to make our life easier.

Any explanation for this I Tune thing would be greatly appreciated or if you can direct me to a page somewhere. I just do not understand the whole thing when if a web page only gives you one option to download a free pod-cast if Apple is not letting another company use that service.